tennis love, chalk cliffs, castles and tunnels

<-- A weekend journey with my Canadian friend Megan took us first to the Wimbledon tennis club. I will admit that tennis is not my favorite sport.. but the tour we got was so cool! The tradition of tennis was very intriguing to me. It helped, too, that our tour guide was very interesting and told a lot of good stories about the athletes and experiences at the championships over the years. One of the things he told us that I found interesting was that Wimbledon is not really set up to house the loads of people that come for the championships every June. They have very few hotels and definitely nothing to the standard most world class athletes usually like to stay in. So what the residents of Wimbledon village do it rent out their houses for the couple weeks! The houses around the tennis club were impressive houses, and our guide told us that owners usually rent their homes for 25,000 pounds for the couple weeks of summer!


<--Megan and I at the desk where they do the press conferences. The Wimbledon facilities were nothing less than state of the art. One interesting thing we learned was about the Wimbledon club's finances. I'll tell ya, the place reeked of money. Everything was immaculate and construction was being done to improve the grounds simply for the sake of improvement. Our guide explained to us that the club was not ran by the super wealthy necessarily and that it only cost 100 pounds a year to be a member at the club (However, it was an elite crowd because you have to be invited to be a member). They make all their money off of the championships and have been successful mainly because of really good decision making by the board. Court one and centre court where the championships are held are only used once a year for the championships and they're making an exception in 2012 for the Olympics. It was all very interesting!


<-- I have to laugh because I know it would take hours to cross the state of Iowa... well Megan and I crossed all of Wales and England to the east coast in only 5 hours rail! Saturday evening and Sunday we spent in Dover, "the gateway to England." Now I'd heard of the white cliffs of Dover but I had no idea why they were white or anything else about the quaint coast town. I was pleasantly surprised! The cliffs are white because they are chalk, and there is much more to Dover than just the cliffs!


<-- Dover castle is situated behind me. It was a massive castle with parts of it dating back to the 1200s. Even more impressive than the castle, though, was that they had dug out tunnels in the chalk cliffs under the castle. Some of the tunnels dated back to the Middle Ages, but most of what is in them is from WWII. There was a hospital, barracks and offices all situated below ground. 6 miles of tunnels at three main different depths! This was where Admiral Ramsay strategized his plan to evacuate the thousands troops from Dunkirk, operation Dynamo, and many of the meetings leading up to D-Day took place. They still had the maps and tables set up with data from the war on them (but you weren't allowed to take pictures in the tunnels.. sorry!). The deepest set of tunnels that people weren't allowed to go down to because of health and safety reasons were set up in case of a nuclear attack. They "Dumpy level" (what they called the lowest level) was equpped to house the Regional Centre of Government and even had a BBC studio to communicate with the people in case of nuclear war. It was so cool!

boys dressed as girls and an "American" experience

<-- My last final exam was last Friday so I've had this week to expore and readjust to being in Swansea.. I have been very productive. Working on my metric conversions lifting weights at the gym, sorting out my class schedule for this next term, and strategizing for my travels this Spring to maximize the most of my last couple months! I haven't stuck around Swansea this whole time though. Wednesday I took the bus to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, and did some exploring. This picture is of me inside the walls of Cardiff castle.


<--Most of the castle was from the Victorian Age (1800s) I found this room the most interesting because it was the kids room. On the table you can see a picture... You can't really make out the details but it is the four children who lived in the castle. There were two boys and two girls, but when you looked closely at the picture you noticed that the youngest boy was dressed in girl's clothing. Apparently during Victorian times they believed that death was a person and that he preferred to take young boys so they dressed their boys like girls in hopes that death would pass them by.

<-- I've also had some fun. This picture is of me and my housemates in our dining room/kitchen. The girl next to me is Lauren, she is from New Mexico. To my left is Jon, he's from France. The other girl is Barbara, she's from Italy (but originally from Argentina). And the guy on the left of the picture is Felix, from Germany. As a house we decided that this term that since we have so many different cultures represented we should have house dinners and prepare "our food" for each other. Lauren and I volunteered to go first. What is American food? As is the American melting pot we realized that most of our food is just spin-offs of other cultures' foods. Because I went home for Christmas I brought back an American delicassy... Kraft Mac N Cheese. They'd never even seen anything like it! Powdered cheese? Haha. We added meat to some of them just to make it appear more like a nutritionally "balanced" meal and it was fun to share something from home with everyone. I'm not sure they were as excited about it as Lauren and I were though!

observations

During my time home for Christmas one of the most common questions I got from friends and family was, "So how different is it over there really?" and my response, based on my observation was that a lot our cultures are very similar. I think that comes from speaking pretty much the same language, watching a lot of the same TV shows and movies, and listening to much of the same music. However, gym and sport culture have some differences. I don't want to say that one culture is healthier than the other by any means, I think we just do things different. So my experience today...

For all good Americans, January is always a good month to kickstart or re-engage a workout routine. It's been almost a full year since I've lifted weights so I decided that I should get back at it. Let's start with my expectations: I spent three years at UNI in Cedar Falls and like clockwork, there were three times of the year that you can always count on the gym being packed. Right when classes start in the fall, before Spring break, and just after the New Year. Now for those of us who are pretty consistent gym users throughout the year, the extra people in the gym with their "New Years Resolutions" are something you have to mentally prepare to be patient with, because its mostly annoying. I'm not saying that I don't think they should be there-- I think everyone should exercise. Anyway... so I was absolutely shocked when I walked into the gym and it was just as empty as usual. I'm not even sure what conclusions to draw from that... Could it be a lack of New Years Resolutions? or New Years Resolutions that don't revolve around body image and weight loss? Hm... Or just a fluke?

So I did a short warmup and then made my way over to what I consider the "Boys' side" of the gym.. the weights. I was looking for the usual 8, 10, 15 and quickly realized that these weights weren't the same as the ones we have at home. Oh the metric system! So as I did conversions in my head to try to figure out which weights to use to do curls as close to 10 pounds as I could I found myself pondering the problems with having separate measuring systems... I've had some trouble cooking and baking because of the temperature being in celcius, and the little bit that weight comes up in converstation between girls I did notice that they weigh themselves in kilos.. They do height for people in feet and inches but distance from sea level in meters. The road signs and distances are all in miles (I noticed when I was in Canada that their road signs were all in kilometers!). Seems to me that they are stuck in the middle of this whole battle of measurement systems!

holiday pics

--> Dad and I after cutting down our "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree. You better believe we chose the smaller of these two trees to take home with us! Mom got it really dressed up though and made it look pretty in the living room. She claims she's not an artist but if that were true she wouldn't pick a tree that needs so much work haha. The day before I was leaving I noticed that most everyone in our neighborhood had their trees out by the street, including us. Everyone else had such beautiful, big, full trees that I could visualize with ornaments and lights set up in their living room windows.. I burst out laughing as I came around the corner and saw our little branch that had been blown into the middle of the driveway. Haha!


--> My sister and I in Banff, Alberta. We joked the whole week before leaving, "Who goes to Canada in the middle of Winter?" I learned, though, that loads of people go to Canada in the Winter for the huge array of winter sports, not to mention it was warmer in Canada than it was in Iowa. I was beautiful!

weather report

Just four days ago I pulled out of my driveway to run a quick errand, began to turn the corner about 150 yards down the street, didn't quite make the turn... and gently slid into the snow pile on the other side of the corner. My little car doesn't go very well in snow, obviously. Dave Buck, my home counselor and conveniently my next door neighbor as well, noticed my predicament and came and pushed me out. As I continued on my way, I couldn't help but chuckle a little at the thought of adding "pushing me out of a snow pile" to all the things Dave has helped me with this year.

I have since made my way back to Swansea where that particular issue is not one I have to worry about. There was a half an inch of snow in London (I don't think they see any snow very often from the panic I picked up on in their voices, haha) that was disrupting plane schedules and altering bus routes, but that has since melted and temps are back up in the 40s.

It's nice to be settling back in and reconnecting with friends. I heard there was sunshine again in the Midwest yesterday. I am excited for you... I won't mention my slightly warmer sunshiney walk on the beach... The sunshine here was unusual though, and of course, rain is still the norm. Sounds like I'll get my full dose of rain at least until March.

winter wonderland

I apologize for not blogging sooner... The holiday season has been crazy! I was able to make the journey back to the states after my final papers were due to celebrate Christmas with my family in Iowa. Highlights include (but definitely aren't limited to) going out to the farm with my mom and dad to cut down our "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree. My mom has a thing for trees that seem to be missing branches and a little thin through the middle, maybe it is sparked by compassion inside her to save a tree that wouldn't otherwise have been chosen.. I don't know! For those of you from the Cedar Valley, you may understand what I mean when I say that a couple trips to Cup of Joe on Main Street in Cedar Falls were a must! It is my favorite coffee shop, and a great place to meet with friends to catch up. I loved sharing stories about my journey this far- I didn't realize until recounting some of what I've learned just exactly how much I really am learning. This experience has been invaluable.

Christmas traditions run wild in my family, from Christmas Eve service as a family at my parent's church to leaving cookies out for Santa to reading the Christmas story from the book of Luke in the Bible before opening presents on Christmas morning. I spent New Year's in Banff, Canada with my sister, representing our family at wedding. This trip, planned last minute, was a blast! For those of you who have never been to Banff, it has got to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. The last major highlight was January 5-- this date should ring a bell for all the Hawkeye fans out there-- the Orange Bowl. No, I wasn't able to go... but my brother is a redshirt freshman who got to dress for the game so my parents made the journey to Miami to support him and the team. I spent the evening with friends glued to a TV cheering them to victory! GO HAWKS! I'll tell ya, the Brits have no idea what they're missing. There's no way their football (soccer) could ever replace our football (American football) in my eyes!

It was really great to be home and experience what I would consider "real winter weather". I didn't realize how much I'd missed snow. I could do without the record-setting cold we've had the last couple days, but the snow was fun. However, this "real winter weather" currently has me trapped in Iowa, having had to postpone my flight back to the UK. Between the snowstorm that hit the midwest yesterday and Wednesday, and the unusually cold, snowy weather in London, there was no way I was able to make my scheduled flight yesterday. The next available flight I was able to get on is for Tuesday. Gotta love Iowa winters!

British holiday factoid for you as well: the day after Christmas in the UK is "Boxing Day." While the history of this day is fading through the generations (most people my age relate it to shopping, sort of like our Black Friday after Thanksgiving), and the day is marked by the opening of many shopping sales, the real meaning of it is quite interesting to me. Back when there was class segregation and wealthy families had servants that waited on them, the day after Christmas was the only day of the year that the servants had off to go visit and spend time with their families. The servants boxed up the leftovers from Christmas and left it for the families to eat while they were away. Thus being called "Boxing Day." A traditional Boxing Day in the UK, if one isn't hitting the shops, is spent with family having cold meat sandwiches. I like it.

Stay warm friends!!